It is that time of the year when SAARF releases the latest RAMS and while many trends since the last release have remained unchanged, there are some slight changes in pattern audience behaviour. Overall time spent listening to radio has remained unchanged, time spent listening to radio in large urban areas continues to decrease. The opposite is true for many community radio stations around the country.

There have been some significant increases in listenership statistics from community radio stations such as Franshoek 87.6 FM in the Western Cape from 0.2% in August to 0.4% in October. In the Northern Cape more than one station has managed to show significant growth in listenership numbers, Bosveld Stereo listenership jumped from 0.6% in August to 1.7% in October, Moretele Community Radio 106.1FM jumped from 3.0 to 4.7 and Radio Mafisa went from 4.7% to 7.5%. The total increase in community radio listenership in the Northern Cape shifted from 34.3% to 40.1%. This pattern of increase in listenership is also prevalent in the Free State with a total jump from 36.2% to 36.4%. Limpopo community radio listenership exhibited a different trend with a significant drop from 23.2% to 19.1. Ukhozi FM still leads as an audience favourite, sitting at 51.1%, followed by Umhlobo Wenene FM at 10.1%. Lisedi FM is third with 6.1% of audiences listing it as a favourite.

Immediate, live and area specific, these are some of the aspects of radio that have been drastically changed by the growth of radio podcasts, cell phones and PVRs. Internet access in South Africa has grown rapidly with the growing use of smart phones and the influence this growth has had on media consumption and production is unmistakable.

Researchers put the numbers of South Africans with access to the internet at roughly 39% of the urban population and 27% of the rural bearing in mind that these figures are growing daily. With the integral relationship being formed by radio stations with their audiences through social media, the ability to reach segments of these audiences who are outside the immediate broadcast area speaks directly to the rise of radio consumption because the location barrier is broken. Cellphones and PVR are a driving force in the breaking of the broadcast location barrier. Growing internet access and the creation of cellphone applications allows us to listen to audio streams of our favourite radio channels on the go and from anywhere in the country. PVR has introduced a dynamic to media production that allows for audiences to record their favorite television programs and watch them at their own leisure; this creates an opportunity for them to catch live radio broadcasts while recording television content for later viewing.

Podcasting has introduced another dimension to the consumption of radio. Traditionally radio broadcasts were live, thus making them immediate and limiting the impact of content to the people listening to the radio at that specific time. The ability to access segments of broadcast material long after the fact and at audiences’ own leisure has increased the “shelf life” of radio content. Content is easily accessible for download and reaches a wider audience and thus has the potential for greater impact. Youtube has also revolutionized content consumption and content shelf life. Earlier this year, 702’s Redi Thlabi had an interview with President Jacob Zuma that was simulcast on air and youtube, the interview was then podcast and was available on a myriad of platforms after it aired live. This is just one example of how these mediums can be used to further influence the consumption of radio content.

The evolution of radio consumption has run parallel with the growing accessibility to the internet and modern technologies. The incorporation of online media into traditional ways of broadcasting is an evolution on its own when considering its implications on content production, branding and advertising. Accessibility plays a major role in the steady rise of radio consumers in the country at all levels and this has been demonstrated by the SAARF RAMS released in August 2012. These show a steady climb in radio consumption. They also showed that the percentage of people listening to radio through other devices had increased by 24.7% for cellphones and 3.7% through the internet. Content production trends are evolving rapidly to cater to the changing radio landscape and the shifting consumption patterns. It looks like radio is evolving and the transformation is a site to behold.

The May RAMS 2012 release used the new 2011 population updates from IHS Global Insight, which has taken over from the BMR as a new contractor to SAARF for the annual population updates.

Due to the change in contractor and also the introduction of some methodological changes for estimating the South African population, these updates, which see the adult 15+ population growing by 2.7%, had a significant impact on the RAMS results.

The industry should examine these population changes carefully, bearing them in mind when dealing with changed audience results as there can be some trend-line breaks. These are particularly marked when using audience numbers (thousands) as opposed to share percentages.

Although the new universe update makes it difficult to establish which movements are due to the population changes and which are not, it is possible to see movements above and beyond those imposed by the new demographic model when users drill down into the data.

Users cautioned

However, in general one can say that users can compare audiences across these breaks as the audiences were legitimately and correctly measured at each given point with the best possible measure at that time. Users must just be cautioned that they must do it while keeping the indicated changes in mind, and take care to establish whether significant audience shifts could have been due to the supplier change.

When looking at RAMS data for the past year, however, users cannot do a direct year-on-year comparison on cost per thousand as that could be misleading.

However, a period on period comparison from the May 2012 RAMS release onwards can be done. A period on period analysis can also be done for the period up to Feb 2012. By evaluating these trends in combination, real movements can be noted across the universe update. Should the levels leading up to February and after May be relatively stable, then any movement between these months is likely to be the result of the population changes.

The South African Audience Research Foundation released the latest RAMS on Thursday, 16 August at the Bryanston Country Club in Johannesburg. A presentation highlighted the most important aspects of the latest RAMS release wave, conducted from mid-March to end-June 2012.

The following data is only a portion of the presentation highlighting radio station trends. Please visit www.saarf.co.za to see the complete presentation.